70 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Affinities. — B. de Jussieu placed Ranunculi between Caj)paridece, 

 and Ldiir'i. Adanson put tliem between his group ''Arum' and that 

 of the Cistuses, which inchided Curafel/a, Sarracenia, and Nigella. 

 A. L. DE Jussieu makes them the first order of his Polypetalous 

 Hypogjnous Dicotyledons, and puts Papaveracea next. De 

 Candollk, whose example has been followed by very many authors, 

 begins his enumeration of Thalamifloral Polypetalous plants by 

 Jl(uiunculacca>, before BUlcniacece and Maynoliaceoi. Endlicher 

 intercalates them between BilleniacccB and Berberidacecs in his class 

 Poli/carpica. Lindley' gives their name to his thirty-second Alliance 

 " Manales" where they are placed between Billeniacece and Sar- 

 raceniacea. Brongniart" gave them exactly the same position : in 

 the Botanical School of the Museum they are actually interposed 

 between BUlcniacece and Ni/mpJiceacea. J. G. Agardh" divides them 

 into three families {HcUeborccB, Nigellaccce, and Banunculea:), which 

 he puts between Fodophyllea and Adoxece. We cannot, indeed, doubt 

 their close relationship to the Bolycaipicce {i.e., MagnoliacecB, 

 Scltizandrecs, Anonacece, MenispennacecB, &c.). Finally, except for the 

 centripetal evolution of the stamens (invisible when the flower is 

 full grown), no absolute character separates them from the Billeniacece, 

 which may be considered as the Banunculacece of hot climates, 

 usually with woody stems. The herbaceous genus Acrotrema is the 

 only exception, and approaches Banuncnlus as nearly as possible. We 

 have attempted to show^ that Banunculacece and Bille7iiacece do not 

 differ absolutely in any of the characters previously used to distinguish 

 them — the persistence of the calyx ; the aspect of the anthers ; the 

 direction of the ovules and of their parts ; the existence of an aril — 

 only that the stem is more frequently herbaceous in Banunculacece 

 than in Billeniacece, while these rarely want an aril, the existence of 

 whicli is, on the contrary, exceptional and not well marked in the 

 former. The calyx is said to persist always in Billeniacece ; it is 

 oftener caducous in Banunculacece. As to the direction of the ovules, 

 " there is but one ilanunculad with a suspended ovule and the micro- 

 pyle external when adult, and this situation of the micropyle would 

 be seen in Billeniacece, if the ovule w^ere suspended, since it is 



II Op. cit., 416. 77, 78, t. v., figs. 11-13. " Ranuuculaccas . . . 



- EnumeralioH des genres de plant, cult, an exhilin, ut relationem cum Adoxa evidentiorem 



J/H.V.. (1813), Ufi, Fain. 1<)3. reddorm." 



"I Tlieoria Systemulln riantaritm (lS58j, 76, ■* Mansonia, iv. 36. 



